hopefully some one can steer me in the right direction…..

my gears are working fine generally, shifts into all front rings and all rear rings except one..

it doesnt seem to like getting into 9th gear on the middle ring (3×9 setup).. it does seem to go in alot easier if i quick shift from say 7th to 9th in a continuous motion, but if im in 8th and try it takes a while to think about it and then goes in after a few more turns…..in bottom front ring and top, it shifts in fine…

then when im finally in that gear i get a catching noise coming from the front derailleur, ONLY in this gear, every other gear is silent and running fine, yet in that gear i get a constant catching (middle front ring, smallest back cog)…..

its not a massive problem as i can get into the gear, its just annoying and the sound of it catching is rather annoying too…

i know you adjust the middle ring by he barrel adjuster, but there is no/slight movement available either clock/anti wise so it doesnt do anything? im assuming its there that lies the problem, but why only that one gear catching?

any ideas?

Thats confusing, because if it rubs in the middle on 9th, it should do it in the bottom too because theres a larger angle on the chain. sounds like you need to move the front derailuer across about 1mm. Also probably back the top end rear derailuer stop screw a little bit.

you shouldn’t be using small back/middle front – the chainline is too far out.

you need to avoid the extremes of the cassette unless you’re in the granny/big rings.

ahhhhhhhh there may lie the answer then!

i think my mechanic guy told me that once, and probably set it up like that (now you have said that, i remember him saying i shouldnt use middle front and back small)

what other gears to avoid then? im sure there are a few more, ive forgot about 🙁

its not often i use it, perhaps on flattish road when try and put the power down thats about it….

Rear shifting, consider checking the rear mech stop screws.

Front mech problem, have you overtightened the barrel adjuster – when it is tightened the cage will be pulled as far to the right (when looking down on it) as it can, so when you chain is in it’s lowest gear at the rear you’ll get chain rub on the inner cage. Might be worth looking at front mech stops but before that seeing if you can slacken off (clockwise turn) the barrel adjuster.

If you’re not confident with the mechanical side of things ❓ then it might be money well spent to ask you local bike shop to have a look for you.

but i thought the H & L screws on the front only mattered for the small and large front ring? didnt think that would affect the middle ring touching those screws??

i was under the impression thats what the barrel adjuster was for to fine tune 2nd middle ring? that said there is about 1 full turns worth of movement on the barrel adjuster and it doesnt seem to do a thing?

like mentioned above, now ive been reminded its not advisable to use that gear its even less a problem, but still intrugied to know 🙂

have a look at park tool.com – some brilliant setup advice ont here.

how old are your cables? maybe needing cleaned or replaced? just mentioning that as i’m replacing mine tomorrow and dirty/old cables in my experience can cause shifting issues only between certain gears and seem fine on others.

probably about 6 months old if that gear cables, was thinking of getting some of those xtr ones ive heard good things about……

Re avoiding combinations at extremes, best is to use smallest front ring with biggest 4 sprockets only; middle ring should work with all 9 sprockets, and largest front ring with the 5 (or maybe 6 at a push) smallest sprockets. In doing that you avoid extreme angles (= excess chain wear and loss in efficiency) and your actually using best combinations for whole spread of gears, with 3×9 there`s a lot of duplication of the ratios so inreality you probably only have 15-18 different ratios at best.
The sluggish chage of 8>9 is probably due to grime / grit in outer casing cable at point between frame seatstay stop and derailleur body, this is a very exposed spot for picking up muck.
Maybe worth removing the cable outer and cleaning teh inner cable up (this CAN be done without removing inner wire from derailleur>>> in middle front ring change on rear to largest back sprocket; then WITHOUT pedalling etc change rear shifter to smallest sprocket position; this will leave cable slack on frame, slip inner out of frame cable stop on seatstay, slide outer up inner cable to expose inner section, clean and then refit)